Pablo Ibar seeks release on bond before retrial

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPjpL8peHBtSbIio6l6NvpdaoiRgbAHyMnIq-SWzNgiwkqSDWaauTFCDBM6G4LWX3SP2dXmM3JcQ9Ro9L49Bw3d3N1yGvMxk_CxDRq7J5dlkqf7B-D8EtVLBQtq7jaPrfH4Tw_gJYO5as/s1600/Pablo+Ibar%252C+left%252C+and+defense+lawyer+Fred+Haddad.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Pablo Ibar, left, and defense lawyer Fred Haddad" border="0" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPjpL8peHBtSbIio6l6NvpdaoiRgbAHyMnIq-SWzNgiwkqSDWaauTFCDBM6G4LWX3SP2dXmM3JcQ9Ro9L49Bw3d3N1yGvMxk_CxDRq7J5dlkqf7B-D8EtVLBQtq7jaPrfH4Tw_gJYO5as/s400/Pablo+Ibar%252C+left%252C+and+defense+lawyer+Fred+Haddad.jpg" title="Pablo Ibar, left, and defense lawyer Fred Haddad" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pablo Ibar, left, and defense lawyer Fred Haddad.</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">A man who spent 16 years on Death Row for three murders he insists he did not commit went before a Broward judge Friday to ask for a bond so he can leave jail as he and his lawyers prepare for a retrial.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Broward Circuit Judge Raag Singhal said he will need time to review volumes of material provided by both sides and will make a decision July 14 on whether Pablo Ibar, 44, should go free while he awaits trial.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ibar was sentenced to death in 2000 for the murders of Casimir "Butch Casey" Sucharski, the flashy former owner of the Casey's Nickelodeon nightclub, and Sharon Anderson and Marie Rogers, two women he brought home with him early on June 26, 1994, the same morning two men chose to rob Sucharski's Miramar house.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The case has proved one of the most expensive and time consuming in Broward history, with prosecutors going after two co-defendants spanning four trials so far, taking up more than 20 months in front of the juries.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ibar and former co-defendant Seth Penalver first went on trial together in 1997, with the jury deadlocking after eight months of testimony. Penalver's second trial ended in a conviction in 1999 after six months, and Ibar was convicted after a six-week trial the following year.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But Penalver was granted a retrial, which ended with his acquittal in 2012.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Penalver was among more than two dozens supporters and family members who attended Friday's bond hearing before Singhal.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ibar was granted a retrial earlier this year, with the Florida Supreme Court ruling that Ibar's defense lawyer at trial, Kayo Morgan, failed to retain a facial recognition expert to challenge the prosecution's evidence that Ibar was at the scene of the crime. The brutal beating of Sucharski and all three murders were captured on home surveillance video, and the man believed to be Ibar left his face uncovered for part of the video.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ibar is legally entitled to bail unless prosecutors can demonstrate that the evidence against him is stronger than what a jury would require for conviction.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Defense lawyers, led by Benjamin Waxman and Fred Haddad, told Singhal Friday that the Supreme Court's decision granting the retrial contained language showing prosecutors cannot meet that burden. In one place, the ruling described the evidence against Ibar as "scant."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But prosecutor William Sinclair said the case remains strong enough to keep Ibar in custody.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Both sides are pushing for the trial to get underway by this fall, and attorneys told Singhal they expect it to last four months.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: <a href="http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/fl-ibar-bond-hearing-20160701-story.html" target="_blank">Sun Sentinel</a>, Rafael Olmeda, July 1, 2016</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Juez evalúa la petición de libertad condicional para español Pablo Ibar</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">MIAMI -- El juez Raaj Singhal evalúa hoy la petición de libertad condicional presentada por la defensa del español Pablo Ibar, cuya pena de muerte fue anulada en febrero pasado por el Tribunal Supremo de Florida.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">En una audiencia celebrada en un tribunal del condado de Broward, la defensa de Ibar pidió la libertad condicional al considerar que no “se atiene” a la Constitución que el español siga preso.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Sin embargo, la Fiscalía, que ya notificó su intención de solicitar de nuevo la pena capital en la repetición del juicio contra Ibar por el triple asesinato en 1994 por el que fue condenado, rechazó esta moción de la defensa.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Para reforzar su negativa a esta libertad condicional, la Fiscalía presentó ante el juez cuatro cajas con documentos y transcripciones de testimonios.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Tras recibir este material, el juez pidió un receso para analizar el índice del contenido de las cajas.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mientras tanto, la defensa, encabezada por el letrado Benjamin Waxman, calificó esta maniobra como táctica dilatoria por parte de la Fiscalía.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Pablo Ibar, con uniforme de preso común, en color gris con rayas gris oscuro, se mostró durante la vista muy comunicativo y relajado.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">El reo estuvo acompañado por una docena de familiares, entre ellos su esposa, Tanya, su hermano Michael y su padre, Cándido, así como el cónsul español en Miami, Cándido Creis.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ibar, de 45 años y origen vasco, fue condenado en 2000 por el asesinato en 1994 del dueño de un local nocturno y dos bailarinas, y lleva encarcelado casi 22 años, 15 de ellos en el corredor de la muerte, del que fue trasladado a una cárcel común a principios de mes.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Fuente: <a href="http://www.elnuevoherald.com/noticias/sur-de-la-florida/article87123787.html" target="_blank">elnuevoherald.com</a>, Julio 1, 2016</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">- Report an error, an omission:<a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com" target="_blank"> deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;"> - Follow us on <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> </b>and <b><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b></span></div></div>

Español Facial recognition Florida Innocence Pablo Ibar Spain USA Pablo Ibar seeks release on bond before retrial

Pablo Ibar, left, and defense lawyer Fred Haddad. A man who spent 16 years on Death Row for three murders he insists he did not commit went ...

Baca selengkapnya »

Waiting for Florida Supreme Court decision that could spare 390 death row inmates

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcV1ApdWbxfmGwf8Gj-QqEC62uhjkH_-BDv2oMJw0Bt7Q-0yOZ1ruAfTkOo7mZvnm_FmCLT1_1WYooJx4DpsX9dNN0k4h-x3SdmlqLg-lZ2pKax819151X5cvj4S8XIV1vt8I0Dkr9EAE/s1600/Florida+death+chamber.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Florida's death chamber" border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcV1ApdWbxfmGwf8Gj-QqEC62uhjkH_-BDv2oMJw0Bt7Q-0yOZ1ruAfTkOo7mZvnm_FmCLT1_1WYooJx4DpsX9dNN0k4h-x3SdmlqLg-lZ2pKax819151X5cvj4S8XIV1vt8I0Dkr9EAE/s400/Florida+death+chamber.jpg" title="Florida's death chamber" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Florida's death chamber</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">With one week left before the Florida Supreme Court goes on its summer recess, the justices have yet to rule on one of the most anticipated and politically charged questions facing them this year: Whether to commute the sentences of 390 death row inmates after the state’s death penalty laws were struck down and rewritten this spring.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In January, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a case called <i>Hurst vs. Florida</i> that the process used to sentence people to death in the state was unconstitutional.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Without a valid death penalty law on the books, the Florida Legislature passed new laws for death sentences that will leave the decision to the jury, which has to find one aggravating circumstance and agree to the death penalty on a 10-2 vote.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">What remains unclear is how the <i>Hurst </i>decision will impact those who have already been sentenced to death.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Defense attorneys for death-row inmates have argued their clients’ sentences should be commuted to life in prison. But the state has stood by the original death sentences.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“If the (Hurst) case were to be remanded (back to a trial court), it would have to be under the new statute,” Assistant Attorney General Carine Mitz said in the Supreme Court in May. “I still don't think we have a problem.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The seven justices don’t have to make up their minds before the summer recess — and given the complexity and controversy of the issue, they may not. But until they do, there’s deep uncertainty on the issue, not just for those convicted and sentenced to death but also within the political and legal worlds.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Gov. Rick Scott has not signed a death warrant since the Florida Supreme Court halted the executions of Michael Lambrix and Mark Asay in February and March.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Some death row lawyers and Supreme Court Justice Barbara Pariente have questioned whether the new law is constitutional because, they say, the requirement that the jury find just one aggravating factor could increase the number of convicted murderers eligible for the death penalty.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On Thursday, the court issued one death-row opinion that briefly addressed <i>Hurst</i>. Charles Brant, who pled guilty to the 2004 murder of 21-year-old Sara Radfar in Tampa.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Because Brant waived his right to a jury in the penalty phase of his murder trial, the justices wrote that <i>Hurst </i>cannot be applied to his case. They issued a similar decision in a death penalty case earlier this month, writing that a death-row inmate “cannot subvert the right to jury fact finding by waiving that right and then suggesting that a subsequent development in the law has fundamentally undermined his sentence.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The final opinions before the court goes on recess are expected at 11 a.m. July 7.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: <a href="http://www.bradenton.com/news/local/article86892057.html" target="_blank">bradenton.com</a>, Michael Auslen, June 30, 2016</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">- Report an error, an omission:<a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com" target="_blank"> deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;"> - Follow us on <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> </b>and <b><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b></span></div></div>

Commutation Florida Hurst v. Florida USA Waiting for Florida Supreme Court decision that could spare 390 death row inmates

Florida's death chamber With one week left before the Florida Supreme Court goes on its summer recess, the justices have yet to rule on ...

Baca selengkapnya »

State of Florida will ask for the death penalty at Pablo Ibar retrial

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdcad9-F3va0eAgzSIq_HTXL1m7pVDyGc0J8RXO_ulajtDdBLNsyGiWFd3Zf_20X8lSRC3jHuFzV1V_4StAwITS_SYB0BH2Cpp6GWfDIqXgHtkPCvqYxlTzodfUm8brhZYcVxfhCwaQC0/s1600/Pablo+Ibar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Pablo Ibar" border="0" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdcad9-F3va0eAgzSIq_HTXL1m7pVDyGc0J8RXO_ulajtDdBLNsyGiWFd3Zf_20X8lSRC3jHuFzV1V_4StAwITS_SYB0BH2Cpp6GWfDIqXgHtkPCvqYxlTzodfUm8brhZYcVxfhCwaQC0/s320/Pablo+Ibar.jpg" title="Pablo Ibar" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pablo Ibar</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>The Spaniard of Basque descent has already spent 16 years on death row, after a conviction in the 1990s for a triple-homicide</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The State of Florida has announced its decision to ask for capital punishment for Pablo Ibar, despite the Florida Supreme Court having vacated a death penalty sentence from the year 2000 and ordered a new trial.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ibar, a Spanish citizen of Basque descent, was convicted of a 1994 triple homicide of a nightclub owner and 2 models. He has already served 22 years in prison, 16 of them on death row.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Andres Krakenberger, a spokesman for the Pablo Ibar Association Against the Death Penalty, told reporters at a news conference on Tuesday that the defense had received the state's notification. He said the decision was "predictable," though it has caused "profound disappointment," given that the prosecution is pressing charges against someone who has "clear proof of his innocence."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Krakenberger said Ibar was wrongly convicted and has already had to serve 16 years on death row, while the Florida Supreme Court agrees that the "scant" evidence against him is "weak."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The court vacated the conviction in February saying: "Ibar's DNA was not found on a blue t-shirt recovered from the crime scene that was allegedly used to partially cover the face of the perpetrator, whom the state claimed to have been Ibar. [...] Ibar never confessed to the crime as he steadfastly proclaimed his innocence [and] presented an alibi as to his whereabouts."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The spokesman criticized "the coldness" of the notification the defense received. Krakenberger said it shows that capital punishment is seen as a "procedure" in the United States despite the fact that it is "cruel, inhumane and degrading" and "has no place in the 21st century."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Krakenberger told reporters that Ibar, who was transferred from death row to a county jail earlier this month, received the news with "a certain resignation," though he said, speaking broadly, that he was in good spirits because his situation "has improved."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ibar's defense team needs $1.3 million to mount their case. They still need to raise $590,000. The defendant has received $50,000 for his legal fees from the Basque Country government, regional organizations and private individuals who have donated to the cause through the association's website.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: El Pais, June 23, 2016</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">- Report an error, an omission:<a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com" target="_blank"> deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;"> - Follow us on <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> </b>and <b><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b></span></div></div>

DNA Facial recognition Florida Innocence Pablo Ibar Spain USA State of Florida will ask for the death penalty at Pablo Ibar retrial

Pablo Ibar The Spaniard of Basque descent has already spent 16 years on death row, after a conviction in the 1990s for a triple-homicide The...

Baca selengkapnya »

Alabama appeals court: Death sentence law constitutional

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0cj4foQQ9iYo_TfYh-9kaL6PFIPvGdkeEmy0rn9RPT6mSi2Ekr1WnS_YhY6WqnX1VuhP0v4JMLYo4rCoML_NraPN5NfcIa1QEEvjkflREs_z2hj8nohOTxO9zmZbtwyUTBwxVM7V41AU/s1600/Alabama.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0cj4foQQ9iYo_TfYh-9kaL6PFIPvGdkeEmy0rn9RPT6mSi2Ekr1WnS_YhY6WqnX1VuhP0v4JMLYo4rCoML_NraPN5NfcIa1QEEvjkflREs_z2hj8nohOTxO9zmZbtwyUTBwxVM7V41AU/s320/Alabama.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">An Alabama appeals court on Friday ordered a Jefferson County judge to vacate her rulings earlier this year that declared the state's capital punishment sentencing scheme unconstitutional.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In its order the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals says the state's capital sentencing scheme is constitutional and told Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Tracie Todd to vacate her March 3 order in the pending capital murder cases of four men that says otherwise.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Alabama Attorney General's Office had filed four petitions for a writ of mandamus asking the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals to direct Todd to vacate her orders and allow the state to decide whether to seek imposition of the death penalty in those cases if it decides.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The cases involve Kenneth Eugene Billups, Stanley Brent Chapman, Terrell Corey McMullin, and Benjamin Todd Acton who were all indicted for various counts of capital murder. Chapman and McMullin are charged in the same case and the others in separate cases.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Before their trials, the men each filed a motion to bar imposition of the death penalty in their cases and to hold Alabama's capital-sentencing scheme unconstitutional based on the United States Supreme Court's decision in January declaring Florida's death sentencing system unconstitutional.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Todd agreed and declared the capital murder sentencing law unconstitutional in a 28-page order.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The Alabama capital sentencing scheme fails to provide special procedural safeguards to minimize the obvious influence of partisan politics or the potential for unlawful bias in the judiciary," Todd stated in her ruling. "As a result, the death penalty in Alabama is being imposed in a "wholly arbitrary and capricious" manner."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Court of Criminal Appeals, however, said Friday that the state's capital sentencing law is constitutional.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Alabama's capital-sentencing scheme is constitutional under (U.S. Supreme Court rulings) Apprendi, Ring, and Hurst, and the circuit court (Todd) erred in holding otherwise and prohibiting the State from seeking the death penalty in capital-murder prosecutions," the appeals court opinion on Friday states.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="http://www.al.com/news/birmingham/index.ssf/2016/06/alabama_appeals_court_death_se.html" target="_blank">Click here to read the full article</a></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: AL.com, Kent Faulk, June 17, 2016</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">- Report an error, an omission:<a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com" target="_blank"> deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;"> - Follow us on <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> </b>and <b><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b></span></div></div>

Alabama Florida Hurst v. Florida SCOTUS USA Alabama appeals court: Death sentence law constitutional

An Alabama appeals court on Friday ordered a Jefferson County judge to vacate her rulings earlier this year that declared the state's ca...

Baca selengkapnya »

Delaware court considers constitutionality of death penalty

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNx0tLl_qWhCjsGyUsEhBMItMO-eOhThs2rJGk8A8qvEoigUcyY_ab0v0aL2pKOiVgd5fOxAbgnYdqsFv3L3qIIIsRipizvZtFG0aKHaJ6pDkdI3lb8kR7KbpDAm7_vdChOhDR00uWQ3Y/s1600/Delaware.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Welcome to Delaware" border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNx0tLl_qWhCjsGyUsEhBMItMO-eOhThs2rJGk8A8qvEoigUcyY_ab0v0aL2pKOiVgd5fOxAbgnYdqsFv3L3qIIIsRipizvZtFG0aKHaJ6pDkdI3lb8kR7KbpDAm7_vdChOhDR00uWQ3Y/s320/Delaware.jpg" title="Welcome to Delaware" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A silent vigil was held outside the Delaware Supreme Court as the court weighs the constitutionality of capital punishment in Delaware.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The ongoing debate over Delaware's death penalty has made its way to the state's highest court.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">For nearly a year, the discourse has drawn protests and emotional pleas at Legislative Hall, but the issue, now sitting squarely before the Delaware Supreme Court, drew a much more pensive tone in a Dover courtroom on Wednesday, as the court heard arguments over whether the way people are sentenced to death in Delaware is constitutional.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The quandary before the court arose after the U.S. Supreme Court found in January that Florida's death penalty law was unconstitutional because it gave judges - not juries - the final say to impose a death sentence. Delaware and Alabama are the only other states that allow judges to override a jury's recommendation of life. Delaware judges, however, have not been using that power.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Confusion over the rulings implication in Delaware led the state's Supreme Court to agree to hear arguments and weigh in.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In front of a packed courtroom Wednesday, a prosecutor argued to the Supreme Court that the state's death penalty process avoids the pitfalls that made Florida's statute infirm, especially since juries make the initial decision about whether a defendant is eligible for the death penalty in Delaware. A public defender countered that the state violates the Sixth Amendment when juries are routinely told that their sentencing decision is merely a recommendation.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The most basic tenant of the [Florida] decision is that fact finding subjecting the defendant to the death penalty must be made by the jury," said Assistant Public Defender Santino Ceccotti "That does not occur in this state."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Delaware is 1 of 32 states with capital punishment. The last execution in the state was in 2012, when Shannon Johnson, 28, was killed by lethal injection.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">All pending capital murder trials and executions for the 14 men on death row are currently on hold while the state considers the constitutionality issue.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The process for sentencing someone to death in Delaware requires multiple steps. Once a person is found guilty of 1st-degree murder, the jury must unanimously agree that the evidence shows beyond a reasonable doubt that a least once of 22 statutory aggravating factors exists.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Then, each juror has to decide whether the aggravating factors outweigh the mitigating factors. That decision does not need to be unanimous, and the judge is not bound by those findings. The judge then has the final authority in sentencing someone to death.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On Wednesday, Deputy Attorney General Sean Lugg argued that Florida's death penalty process looks similar to an older version of Delaware's statute that existed before the General Assembly in 2002 changed it in response to another court ruling. The more recent ruling was a way to get Florida in line with the prior decision, Lugg said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ceccotti countered that legislative change is still needed for Delaware's law to pass constitutional muster. Delaware Supreme Court Chief Justice Leo E. Strine Jr. repeatedly questioned how, if the court were to find the statute unconstitutional, would the legislature write a new statute with a judge still involved in any aspect of the sentencing.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ceccotti responded, saying that to be in line with the Florida decision, the fact finding can not be in the hands of judges.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Florida and Alabama are also still grappling with the U.S. Supreme Court decision.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Last week, the Florida Supreme Court heard arguments over whether the death penalty statute lawmakers in Florida hurriedly passed after the January decision is now acceptable. Like Delaware, Florida's new law requires juries to unanimously determine at least one aggravating factor before defendants are sentenced to death. Alabama has been far less willing to act, but the U.S. Supreme Court has told the Alabama appeals court multiple times recently to reconsider its statute.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The state court's future decision will be significant for Delaware. A bill to abolish the death penalty failed in the state House of Representatives earlier this year, but instead of filing a motion for reconsideration of the bill, the bill's sponsors said in March they would suspend legislative action until the Delaware Supreme Court rules.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Abraham J. Bonowitz, Delaware's death penalty abolition coordinator for Amnesty International, said at a silent vigil with about 15 people outside the Supreme Court building Wednesday that the court's decision could help toward the goal of abolishing the death penalty.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"All of us here are praying that the Delaware Supreme Court finds ... that the death penalty is unconstitutional," he said. "And then it will be on the legislature to fix it, rather than end it. We should be able to stop a fix as it's always easier to stop bad legislation than to pass progressive legislation."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: delawareonline.com, June 15, 2016</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">- Report an error, an omission:<a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com" target="_blank"> deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;"> - Follow us on <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> </b>and <b><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b></span></div></div>

Alabama Delaware Florida Hurst v. Florida Judicial override SCOTUS USA Delaware court considers constitutionality of death penalty

A silent vigil was held outside the Delaware Supreme Court as the court weighs the constitutionality of capital punishment in Delaware. The ...

Baca selengkapnya »

Death penalty arguments to be heard by Delaware Supreme Court

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNx0tLl_qWhCjsGyUsEhBMItMO-eOhThs2rJGk8A8qvEoigUcyY_ab0v0aL2pKOiVgd5fOxAbgnYdqsFv3L3qIIIsRipizvZtFG0aKHaJ6pDkdI3lb8kR7KbpDAm7_vdChOhDR00uWQ3Y/s1600/Delaware.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNx0tLl_qWhCjsGyUsEhBMItMO-eOhThs2rJGk8A8qvEoigUcyY_ab0v0aL2pKOiVgd5fOxAbgnYdqsFv3L3qIIIsRipizvZtFG0aKHaJ6pDkdI3lb8kR7KbpDAm7_vdChOhDR00uWQ3Y/s320/Delaware.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Delaware Supreme Court hears arguments on the constitutionality of the state's death penalty today, bringing an issue that has been debated for months closer to conclusion - and potentially opening up a whole new deliberation.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Rauf v. State of Delaware</i> will be argued at 9:30, with the Department of Justice and Public Defender's Office representing opposing sides. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Department of Justice contends the state's capital punishment statute is not in violation of the U.S. Constitution, while the Public Defender's Office believes it contradicts the right to jury trial.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In January, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Florida's death penalty is unconstitutional because it allows the judge to sentence death. Delaware's death penalty law has similarities to Florida's, with a judge having some sway over whether to sentence a person to death.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Even if the court rules that portion of the law is unconstitutional, it may not strike down the death penalty as a whole. If the justices hold, however, the language in question is invalid and cannot be separated from the greater death penalty provision, capital punishment in the state would be at least temporarily eliminated.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Responsibility would fall to the General Assembly to craft a new law, and there may be enough opponents of capital punishment in the two Democratic-controlled chambers to block an attempt to overhaul the law.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Santino Ceccotti and Elizabeth McFarlan are the lead attorneys for the Public Defender and Justice Department, respectively.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: Delaware State News, June 15, 2016</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Delaware justices hear arguments on death penalty law</span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Delaware's Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments on the constitutionality of the state's death penalty.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The court agreed in January to answer questions from Delaware's Superior Court to determine whether the state's death penalty law meets constitutional muster. Meanwhile, all death penalty trials in Delaware are on hold.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Questions were raised about the constitutionality of Delaware's law after the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year struck down Florida's death penalty sentencing statute. That statute required a judge, not a jury, to find the factual existence of an "aggravating circumstance" making a defendant eligible for the death penalty.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Delaware's law is similar to Florida's, but prosecutors argue that it nevertheless is constitutional.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In advance of Wednesday's hearing, the court accepted written briefs from the attorney general's office and public defender's office.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: Associated Press, June 15, 2016</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">- Report an error, an omission:<a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com" target="_blank"> deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;"> - Follow us on <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/Death-Penalty-News-206848499362906/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> </b>and <b><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b></span></div></div>

Delaware Florida Hurst v. Florida Judicial override USA Death penalty arguments to be heard by Delaware Supreme Court

The Delaware Supreme Court hears arguments on the constitutionality of the state's death penalty today, bringing an issue that has been ...

Baca selengkapnya »

Sacramento preacher celebrates Orlando shootings, urges more deaths

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2HR6NvyE29BrjP6au7cSTX6mFibJrViHwz0569_tN0kyMBPrQlb9nIO4UBof7wIk-7NopunKOtkmke2TJvkx0r1pwsJRmoGCTRg7A3tSkYme1qFn4wXM1-FahDrvBGysLt7jA2L79hsM/s1600/The+Victims+of+the+Orlando+Terror+Attack.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2HR6NvyE29BrjP6au7cSTX6mFibJrViHwz0569_tN0kyMBPrQlb9nIO4UBof7wIk-7NopunKOtkmke2TJvkx0r1pwsJRmoGCTRg7A3tSkYme1qFn4wXM1-FahDrvBGysLt7jA2L79hsM/s400/The+Victims+of+the+Orlando+Terror+Attack.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Some of the victims of  the Orlando shooter. <a href="http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-orlando-nightclub-victims-who-they-were-snap-htmlstory.html" target="_blank">Who they were...</a></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">Sacramento Baptist preacher Roger Jimenez took to the pulpit hours after a mass shooting in Orlando, Florida that left 50 dead and dozens injured. But instead of words of comfort, Jimenez offered up praise for the killer and urged more killings of LGBT people.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Are you sad that 50 pedophiles were killed today?” the pastor of Verity Baptist Church said in the sermon. “Um no, I think that’s great! I think that helps society. I think Orlando, Florida is a little safer tonight.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“We don’t need to do anything to help. As far as I’m concerned, Orlando is a little bit safer tonight,” he said. “If we lived in a righteous government, they should round them all up and put them up against a firing wall, and blow their brains out.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Local activist Sandrea Nelson, Pride director of the Davis-Phoenix coalition, gave a profound statement to the Sacramento Bee when asked about Jimenez’ comments from the pulpit.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“He’s not a man of God. He is not teaching religion,” he said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson also condemned Jimenez’ statements in a post on Twitter.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Video of Jimenez’s “sermon” was quickly taken down by YouTube for violating the site’s hate speech policy. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: LGBTQ Nation, Bil Browning, June 14, 2016</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">- Report an error, an omission:<a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com" target="_blank"> deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;"> - Follow us on <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/Death-Penalty-News-206848499362906/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> </b>and <b><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b></span></div></div>

Executed for being gay Florida Hate crime Homosexuality LGBT Mass shooting Orlando attack Religion USA Sacramento preacher celebrates Orlando shootings, urges more deaths

Some of the victims of  the Orlando shooter. Who they were... Sacramento Baptist preacher Roger Jimenez took to the pulpit hours after a mas...

Baca selengkapnya »

50 Killed at Pulse Gay Club in Orlando; Deadliest Mass Shooting in U.S. History

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8lqdlZrPlhIDPCCkuy_fQx-hRpboylstPnZHofb7_ZV5DmB7xp07B-oGnHmsnewAG_l-RyGrimv9B6h40U8gAhHt8tsNvyOgZGSx3BqXFPuzrk2y6HCsOHgbdGRr01bTKDu9973trZpg/s1600/Pulse+Attack+Orlando+Florida+12+June+2016.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Pulse attack, Orlando, Florida, 12 JUN 2016" border="0" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8lqdlZrPlhIDPCCkuy_fQx-hRpboylstPnZHofb7_ZV5DmB7xp07B-oGnHmsnewAG_l-RyGrimv9B6h40U8gAhHt8tsNvyOgZGSx3BqXFPuzrk2y6HCsOHgbdGRr01bTKDu9973trZpg/s400/Pulse+Attack+Orlando+Florida+12+June+2016.jpg" title="Pulse attack, Orlando, Florida, 12 JUN 2016" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Omar Saddiqui Mateen shot more than 100 people and took several hostage before he was killed by police in what is being called a terrorist attack. Mateen called 911 at the time of the attack to pledge allegiance to ISIS and mentioned the Boston bombers in the call. He had been investigated by the FBI in the past for possible ties to Islamic extremism.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The shooting began around 2 a.m. The gunman ran into the club and took hostages. Around 5 a.m. authorities used an armored vehicle to break down the door of the building and end the attack. "It appears he was organized and well-prepared," Orlando Police Chief John Mina said. The shooter had an assault-type weapon, a handgun and "some type of (other) device on him."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Who was Omar Mateen?</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Police have identified the gunman in one of the most deadly mass shootings in modern American history as 29 year-old Omar Mateen.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Authorities say that Mateen attacked the gay nightclub pulse in Orlando, Florida with a revolver, AR15 assault rifle and a suspected explosive device. After the assault on around 320 people in the nightclub 50 were confirmed dead and 53 were taken to hospital, many in serious medical conditions.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />Omar Mir Seddique Mateen was born in New York and his parents are originally from Afghanistan. He worked as a security officer at G4S Secure Solutions and while his Fort Pierce apartment was searched by police a neighbour commented to CNN that he worked as a security guard at the courthouse in Port St. Lucie, Florida.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mateen was interviewed not once, but twice by the FBI in 2013 and 2014. According to Ron Hopper, head of the FBI in Orlando, Mateen appeared on their radar after he made “inflammatory comments” to co-workers alleging possible “terrorist ties.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Ultimately,” Ron Hopper said, “we were unable to verify the substance of his comments, and the investigation was closed.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mateen was questioned again in 2014 about a possible connection with Moner Mohammad Abu-Salha, an American known to have carried out a suicide bombing in the Syria conflict. The FBI, again, drew a blank and concluded that there was no “substantial relationship” between Mateen and Abu-Salha – following this, they closed both investigations on him and did not place Mateen on any terrorism watch lists.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrTOSRFadx_vSRInMuu8qnp-URR4Pjc56ciHjWQV4nvZsf4UqLh_3-cAKzcCIvDqb50Nbj6ExSlVY7mKl08_6z1ynRfk2y7ye-AdcNp9lAUQ_mraCV_OJ3xu-NgFS1zVKDAifwW1B4TOU/s1600/Orlando+12+JUNE+2016.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrTOSRFadx_vSRInMuu8qnp-URR4Pjc56ciHjWQV4nvZsf4UqLh_3-cAKzcCIvDqb50Nbj6ExSlVY7mKl08_6z1ynRfk2y7ye-AdcNp9lAUQ_mraCV_OJ3xu-NgFS1zVKDAifwW1B4TOU/s320/Orlando+12+JUNE+2016.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">According to the BBC, FBI officials said that Mateen appeared to “have leanings towards” a radical Islamist ideology.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Around 20 minutes before attacking Pulse nightclub, Mateen allegedly dialled 911 and pledged his allegiance to the terror group ISIS. According to reports, during the call he also mentioned the Boston Marathon bombers Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Tamerlan Tsarnaev.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In the hours following the horrific crime, Mateen’s ex-wife, Sitora Yusifiy, told press that he was violent towards her, mentally ill and “obviously disturbed, deeply, and traumatised.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mateen’s father, Mir Seddique, told NBC News that his son had become angry when he saw two men kissing in Miami, and he believed that could be related to the shooting.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Police believe Mateen rented a car and drove to Orlando to carry out the horrific attack in Pulse. TMZ report that local authorities believe Mateen specifically chose his target because it was a gay club.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Less than 24 hours after the attack on Pulse, the terror group ISIS claimed responsibility for the killings.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In a message posted on a site associated with the ISIS news agency Amaq, they described the attacker as “an Islamic State fighter.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">US officials have cautioned that they had no conclusive evidence of any direct connection with foreign extremists.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“So far as we know at this time, his first direct contact was a pledge of bayat [loyalty] he made during the massacre,” a US counterterrorism official told The Telegraph. “This guy appears to have been pretty screwed up without any help from anybody.” </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: CNN, June 12, 2016, Gay Times, June 13, 2016</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">"LGBTQ people face the threat of terror daily. The terror of those who sustain heterosexual and cisgender supremacy. The terror of religions that condemn us. The terror of political parties that work to deny us full citizenship. The terror of elected officials and candidates who attack us. The terror of school authorities who look the other way as we are being bullied. The terror of media that spread hate speech. The terror of families who turn their backs on us or who in words or silence make it clear they see us as inferior. All of them have blood on their hands."</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">-- G. Koskovich, LGBTQ historian and activist</blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">"We cannot fathom the sheer hatred that would lead someone to shoot down more than a hundred complete strangers gathered in their community’s own safe space to innocently celebrate. Last night’s massacre at an Orlando gay bar is the latest senseless tragedy to befall our country and, poignantly, one of our many minority communities who continually struggle for their basic freedom and security. We cannot overstate our sorrow and grief on behalf of all the victims and all who love and care about them.<br /><br />Sadly, attacks of this nature do not require “radicalism.” Anti-LGBTQ+ hatred is simply too engrained in our country and around the world to be explained away as an exception. Violence of this type happens several times every day in the U.S., but usually on a smaller scale that escapes most of our notice. This crime has brought it once more to our full attention. Be it Orlando, or Charleston, or Colorado Springs, we are reminded all too often that we can be chosen as victims for merely seeking to be our authentic selves."</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">-- Jason Marsden, Executive Director of the Matthew Shepard Foundation</blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">“This massacre is therefore a further reminder of how easy it is for someone to get their hands on a weapon that lets them shoot people in a school or a house of worship or a movie theater or a nightclub. We have to decide if that’s the kind of country we want to be. To actively do nothing is a decision as well.”</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">-- President Barack Obama</blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Across The World, Shock And Condemnation At Orlando Massacre</span></b></div><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS5jFx2SFiJ2BlgwfFLVSUksPFwHSAYu84qCns-DnjYaAn8Nw37OYg3NR3PuSLUQpv8yUZWOL7DIXtngsww4rcH6Hx8bx0Shru0dGP8GQFhOIEx2xkw0NGtxOsJWMJqszCy2ForswhH6g/s1600/The+%25E2%2580%25AACastro%25E2%2580%25AC+%2528San+Francisco%2529+mourns+%25E2%2580%25AAthe+Orlando+victims.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="The Castro (San Francisco) mourns the Orlando victims" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS5jFx2SFiJ2BlgwfFLVSUksPFwHSAYu84qCns-DnjYaAn8Nw37OYg3NR3PuSLUQpv8yUZWOL7DIXtngsww4rcH6Hx8bx0Shru0dGP8GQFhOIEx2xkw0NGtxOsJWMJqszCy2ForswhH6g/s320/The+%25E2%2580%25AACastro%25E2%2580%25AC+%2528San+Francisco%2529+mourns+%25E2%2580%25AAthe+Orlando+victims.jpg" title="The Castro (San Francisco) mourns the Orlando victims" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Castro (San Francisco) mourns the Orlando victims</td></tr></tbody></table>NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) — From across the world, officials and public figures are expressing condemnation and shock over the mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando that left 50 people dead and dozens more hurt.<br /><br />The massacre Sunday at the Pulse Orlando nightclub is now being called the worst mass shooting in U.S. history.<br /><br />In France, the Eiffel tower will shine in the colors of a rainbow on Monday night to honor the victims. Paris City Hall will pay its respects when American and rainbow flags will fly.<br /><br />France feels deeply the horror of deadly attacks after the November terror attacks on a music hall, restaurants and bars and the main sports stadium killed 130. That was preceded by attacks on a satirical newspaper and a kosher grocery store. All were claimed by the Islamic State group.<br /><br />Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister David Cameron have sent messages of condolence from Britain for the attack, which killed 50 people at a gay nightclub.<br /><br />Buckingham Palace says the queen sent a message to President Barack Obama saying: “Prince Philip and I have been shocked by the events in Orlando. Our thoughts and prayers are with all those who have been affected.”<br /><br />J.K. Rowling also said one victim of the Orlando killings worked on the Harry Potter Ride at the Universal Studios theme park.<br /><br />The author tweeted a picture of 22-year-old Luis Vielma in a Hogwarts school tie, and said: “I can’t stop crying.”<br /><br />German Chancellor Angela Merkel says it’s important to continue with “our open, tolerant life” following attacks such as the mass shooting at an Orlando gay club.<br /><br />Speaking during a visit to China on Monday, Merkel said that “we have a heavy heart” over the fact that “the hatred and malignancy of a single person cost over 50 people their lives.”<br /><br />She added: “We are firmly determined, even when such murderous attacks put us into deep sorrow, to continue with our open, tolerant life.”<br /><br />Israeli President Reuven Rivlin says in a letter to President Barack Obama that Israel stands “shoulder to shoulder with our American brothers and sisters” after the attack on the LGBT community.<br /><br />Rivlin sent his condolences, saying there is “no comfort for those who have had their loved ones torn away from them.”<br /><br />The Orlando attack has dominated news in Israel, which has seen a wave of Palestinian attacks in recent months. On Wednesday two Palestinian gunmen killed four people at a popular shopping and restaurant area in Tel Aviv. LGBT groups in Israel planned rallies and other support for the community in Orlando.<br /><br />Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah says the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history is a “senseless act of terror and hate” and that “Palestinians stand with the American people in this difficult time.”<br /><br />The statement made no direct reference to the LGBT community. Homosexuality is deeply taboo in the conservative Palestinian society as it is throughout most of the Arab and Muslim world and in Saudi Arabia, judges can issue the death penalty for same-sex relations. Gay Palestinians tend to be secretive about their social lives and some have crossed into Israel to live openly safely.<br /><br />Afghanistan’s Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah told the Cabinet as he opened the weekly meeting live on television on Monday morning that the Orlando attack “tells us that terrorism knows no religion, boundary and geography. Terrorism must be eliminated.”<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitRc0yi_p0yumztFESFjPnCXFFD6ETaFOfFKY2O-jhgCwA2mF4wB5M7WQetaMp6IchPyFP_qajiFydZDb9fg86cVq9aEVf0zP8q0VPLVRBqON_bazAavC6wTOUMyEzA3Duz6UsxG6CWM8/s1600/Eiffel+Tower+Rainbow+Flag.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitRc0yi_p0yumztFESFjPnCXFFD6ETaFOfFKY2O-jhgCwA2mF4wB5M7WQetaMp6IchPyFP_qajiFydZDb9fg86cVq9aEVf0zP8q0VPLVRBqON_bazAavC6wTOUMyEzA3Duz6UsxG6CWM8/s400/Eiffel+Tower+Rainbow+Flag.jpg" width="353" /></a></div>He says that Afghans “do not support terrorism but the victims of terrorist attacks” and offered his condolences to the people and government of the United States. “Our hearts and minds are with our U.S. partners.” He also urged “collective actions to end such attacks.”<br /><br />Pakistan’s former military ruler Gen. Pervez Musharraf condemned the Orlando shooting, saying “this is a sobering reminder that extremism and terrorism are on the rise.”<br /><br />Musharraf, who is facing court cases at home but left Pakistan in March for treatment abroad, says on his Facebook page the world must “address the root causes of global terrorism to suck the oxygen out of the extremist narrative of hate, intolerance, bigotry and the promotion of obscurantist ideology that is radicalizing vulnerable Muslims around the world.”<br /><br />Kuwait’s Foreign Ministry says the government strongly condemns the “terrorist attack” that took place in Orlando, adding that the escalation of such assaults requires a doubling down of efforts on the part of the international community to eliminate “this disgusting phenomenon.”<br /><br />Last year, 27 people were killed by an Islamic State suicide bomber in Kuwait during prayer at a mosque in the capital.<br /><br />Qatar’s Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the Orlando mass shooting and called for concerted international efforts to “face criminal acts that target civilians.”<br /><br />Egypt’s Foreign Ministry condemned the Orlando attack “in the strongest possible terms,” and offered condolences to the American government and people. “Egypt stands next to the American people in these difficult times, offering sincere condolences to the families of the victims and wishing the injured a speedy recovery.”<br /><br />Egypt’s statement urged for international solidarity and a “firm, comprehensive approach to confronting terrorism, which knows no borders or religion, and is incompatible with all humanitarian principles and values.”<br /><br />The United Arab Emirates, home to the Western-friendly metropolises of Abu Dhabi and Dubai, condemned “the terrorist attack” in Orlando, expressed its solidarity with the United States and called on the international community to work to “eliminate the scourge of terrorism.”<br /><br />China’s official Xinhua News Agency issued a statement saying President Xi Jinping had telephoned his American counterpart Barack Obama to express his condolences over the Orlando shootings.<br /><br />Xi was quoted as saying that “on behalf of the government and people of China, I convey to President Obama and the American government and people my deepest sympathies, sincere condolences and deep grief for the victims.”<br /><br />Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has condemned the Orlando nightclub attack and expressed condolences to the victims and their families.<br /><br />Abe told reporters Monday in Oita that “Japan stands together with the people of the United States” and that “this despicable act of terror cannot be tolerated.”<br /><br />Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said that the Orlando mass shooting was “an attack on all of us, on all our freedoms, the freedom to gather together, to celebrate, to share time with friends.”<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7xAFPJoEPj95DH05WZryHhRdpx2ce1cT4VPlIBF2Z7YUJu_CO9AAuRCt3ts6EjfihFI6TaKlYC7tt4aVBKhyDzfaL1FsHxPLvsc8fWLXn_npBpz562iXG9nz2B3ZjRTJ-dRoHzS9IG8o/s1600/Orlando+attack.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7xAFPJoEPj95DH05WZryHhRdpx2ce1cT4VPlIBF2Z7YUJu_CO9AAuRCt3ts6EjfihFI6TaKlYC7tt4aVBKhyDzfaL1FsHxPLvsc8fWLXn_npBpz562iXG9nz2B3ZjRTJ-dRoHzS9IG8o/s400/Orlando+attack.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>He said he spoke with the U.S. ambassador to Australia, John Berry, “and formally conveyed to him Australians’ sympathy, condolences and resolute solidarity in the face of this shocking act of hate and terror.”<br /><br />“Together, at home and abroad, we continue the fight against terrorism and stand up for the values of our free nations,” Turnbull said.<br /><br />The mass shooting at an Orlando gay nightclub happened shortly after a same-sex kiss was removed from a production of the musical “Les Miserables” in Singapore, and after the government said it would look into rules of foreign funding for gay pride parades like Pink Dot.<br /><br />Law Minister K. Shanmugam said on Facebook: “Another senseless shooting. — It just goes on and on. The madness is not going to stop.”<br /><br />The prime minister of Muslim-majority Malaysia, Najib Razak, said he was “horrified” by the Orlando mass shooting. “Islam abhors killing of innocent people,” he tweeted.<br /><br />A few Malaysians, using pseudonyms, wrote on social media that they approved of the attack at the gay nightclub because the victims were “sinners,” but they were quickly condemned by many others.<br /><br />Source: CBS, June 13, 2016<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Islamic scholar says the government - not vigilantes - should have executed Orlando gays</span></b></div><br />Less than 3 months ago, Islamic scholar Farrokh Sekaleshfar gave a talk at the Husseini Islamic Center just outside Orlando where he said that the sentence for people who are found guilty of homosexuality should be death. Despite this, he is condemning Orlando shooter Omar Mateen for massacring 50 gay people in a club this weekend.<br /><br />In an <a href="http://fusion.net/story/313063/orlando-terror-attack-muslim-lgbt/" target="_blank">interview with Fusion</a>, Sekaleshfar explained that even though he believes in the death penalty for homosexuals, he doesn't think that gives anyone the right to go out and massacre them at a nightclub. He also noted that four people need to witness a gay person having sex in order for them to be convicted of sodomy and sentenced to death.<br /><br />"I never gave the call to a death sentence," he said, while claiming that his remarks had been taken out of context. "I was explaining what Islamic law - in a country whose people democratically desired Islamic law to be exercised - states in relation to NOT homosexuals, but rather in relation to when the act of anal copulation is executed in such an aforementioned public."<br /><br />For the record, this is what Sekaleshfar had to say in late March about the proper Islamic penalties for homosexuality:<br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">Death is the sentence. There's nothing to be embarrassed about this. Death is the sentence ... We have to have that compassion for people. With homosexuals, it's the same. Out of compassion, let's get rid of them now.</blockquote><br />It's entirely possible that someone could hear this declaration and use it as justification to take it upon themselves to kill gay people - after all, if an Islamic scholar says "let's get rid of" gay people now, most people listening won't be attuned to the nuances of when it is or isn't purportedly "appropriate" to kill homosexuals just for being themselves. The easier path is to just say, "Killing homosexuals is wrong."<br /><br />Source: rawstory.com, June 13, 2016<br /><br /><br /><b><span style="font-size: large;">Was Orlando Gunman Omar Mateen a Self-Hating Gay Man?</span></b><br /><br /><i>Former wife of Omar Mateen says he might have hidden his gay identity out of shame</i><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUXcyS5PoPkJz3ZgNugRDjX0sWwAEprh8_xbT8BHi2ZOVfHTPruVBH9STCuLT3es2SBu76m92FdANPp8VZIB-ONTiFsRraFsgGZdDrgl0mX0ufuaxlBpWDg_kCzbZqN09gbdkHiKAY5g4/s1600/Orlando+Victims.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUXcyS5PoPkJz3ZgNugRDjX0sWwAEprh8_xbT8BHi2ZOVfHTPruVBH9STCuLT3es2SBu76m92FdANPp8VZIB-ONTiFsRraFsgGZdDrgl0mX0ufuaxlBpWDg_kCzbZqN09gbdkHiKAY5g4/s400/Orlando+Victims.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>The former wife of the Orlando gunman, Omar Mateen, has told The New York Times that her ex-husband might have been gay and closeted, reinforcing reports that Mateen was a regular at Pulse nightclub and that he’d kept profiles on gay dating apps like Grindr and Jack’d.<br /><br />Mateen, who killed 49 people and injured 53 in the early hours of Sunday morning, was a frequent patron at Pulse according to several people interviewed by the Canadian Press.<br /><br />“Sometimes he would go over in the corner and sit and drink by himself, and other times he would get so drunk he was loud and belligerent,” said Ty Smith, adding that he didn't believe Mateen could be enraged by the sight of two men kissing. “That’s straight-up crap,” he said. “He’s been around us. Some of those people did a little more than [kiss] outside the bar. ... He was partying with the people who supposedly drove him to do this?”<br /><br />Smith's husband, Chris Callen, told The Canadian Press that Mateen had frequented Pulse for the last three years.<br /><br />And 71-year-old Jim Van Horn, who lost three friends in the shooting, told the Associated Press that Mateen was a “regular” at the Pulse nightclub. “He was a homosexual and he was trying to pick up men,” he said. “He would walk up to them and then he would maybe put his arm round them or something ... That’s what people do at gay bars.” He added, “I think it’s possible that he was trying to deal with his inner demons, of trying to get rid of his anger of homosexuality.”<br /><br />Meanwhile, two men have now come forward to claim having communicated with Mateen on gay dating apps. One, Kevin West, described meeting Mateen on the app Jack’d a year ago, and then again within the last three months. Another man, Cord Cedeno, said he'd seen Mateen at the bar in Pulse with a drink. “He was open with his picture on the sites; he was easy to recognize,” Cedeno told The Washington Post.<br /><br />The revelations, if true, sow more confusion around Mateen's motives. Was he in Pulse because he wanted to kill LGBT people in particular, or because it was a place with which he was familiar? In the bathroom of the nightclub, where many of his victims died, Mateen talked a lot about Islamic State and Syria, but not at all about gay people, according to a survivor who gave his name to The New York Times only as Orlando.<br /><br />Yet if he was gay or bisexual, Mateen was clearly not at peace with who he was. In a video interview posted to Facebook on Monday, Mateen's father, Seddique Mateen, expressed bewilderment at his son’s attack, only to then suggest that it was for “God [to] punish those involved in homosexuality.”<br /><br />It’s the kind of language we hear from Bible-thumping pastors as often as from radical imams. How that culture played into the toxic stew of influences that drove Mateen to commit his appalling crime it may be too early to know, but the more details that emerge, the more complex this story becomes.<br /><br />Source: OUT, Aaron Hicklin, June 14, 2016<br /><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">- Report an error, an omission:<a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com" target="_blank"> deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;"> - Follow us on <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/Death-Penalty-News-206848499362906/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> </b>and <b><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b></span></div></div>

D. Tsarnaev Daesh Executed for being gay Florida Homosexuality ISIS Islamism LGBT Mass shooting Orlando attack USA 50 Killed at Pulse Gay Club in Orlando; Deadliest Mass Shooting in U.S. History

Omar Saddiqui Mateen shot more than 100 people and took several hostage before he was killed by police in what is being called a terrorist a...

Baca selengkapnya »

Spaniard Pablo Ibar taken off Florida death row

<div style="text-align: justify;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdcad9-F3va0eAgzSIq_HTXL1m7pVDyGc0J8RXO_ulajtDdBLNsyGiWFd3Zf_20X8lSRC3jHuFzV1V_4StAwITS_SYB0BH2Cpp6GWfDIqXgHtkPCvqYxlTzodfUm8brhZYcVxfhCwaQC0/s1600/Pablo+Ibar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Pablo Ibar" border="0" height="249" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdcad9-F3va0eAgzSIq_HTXL1m7pVDyGc0J8RXO_ulajtDdBLNsyGiWFd3Zf_20X8lSRC3jHuFzV1V_4StAwITS_SYB0BH2Cpp6GWfDIqXgHtkPCvqYxlTzodfUm8brhZYcVxfhCwaQC0/s320/Pablo+Ibar.jpg" title="Pablo Ibar" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pablo Ibar</td></tr></tbody></table>Pablo Ibar, whose death sentence was overturned in February by the Florida Supreme Court, has been transferred to a regular prison</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Florida Supreme Court vacated Ibar's sentence and ordered a new trial, citing several flaws in the state's arguments against him.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">45-year-old Ibar, who is of Basque descent, will appear before Judge Jeffrey Levenson in a Fort Lauderdale court, in Broward County, on Friday. Levenson presided over his case in 2009, nearly 10 years after the Spaniard was sentenced to death for the triple murder of a nightclub owner and 2 models.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ibar, who has served 22 years in prison, 15 of them on death row, has always maintained his innocence.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Ibar is already listed as being transferred to a jail in Broward County," said Andres Krakenberger, a spokesman for the Pablo Ibar Association Against the Death Penalty.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Florida Supreme Court underscored one of the most important arguments used by the defense: the fact that "Ibar's DNA was not found on a blue T-shirt recovered from the crime scene" and which was allegedly "[used] by the perpetrator to partially cover his face."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Benjamin Waxman, Ibar's lawyer, filed 7 motions in Broward County questioning the basis of the prosecution's case. He argued against the strength of a key piece of evidence, a "soundless, blurry, grainy" home surveillance videotape that a facial identification expert said could not prove "with certainty" that the killer was in fact the defendant.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ibar will appear before Judge Levenson on Friday for a short hearing to decide "future steps to be taken in the procedure leading to the retrial."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ibar, who has served 22 years in prison, 15 of them on death row, has always maintained his innocence. The defense will ask the court to release him on bail and under the supervision of his family while awaiting the new trial.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">During the 1st trial, which began in 1998, a Broward County jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict and the judge threw out the case because there were no fingerprints or DNA linking Ibar to the murders. But he was convicted on August 28, 2000 after a 2nd trial. Ibar is the only Spanish citizen to have been sentenced to death in the United States.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: el pais, June 10, 2016</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Spain's Pablo Ibar, newly off death row, appears in court ahead of retrial</span></b></div><br />Spanish former death-row inmate Pablo Ibar appeared Friday before the new judge assigned to his case, who expressed his desire to expedite a retrial after the Florida Supreme Court earlier this year vacated the defendant's 2000 murder conviction.<br /><br />The brief hearing in Judge Raaj Singhal's court in Fort Lauderdale, north of Miami, lasted just over 10 minutes and was open to the media.<br /><br />Singhal asked the defense attorneys how much time they would need to prepare for the retrial of their client, who is accused of killing 48-year-old nightclub owner Casimir "Butch Casey" Sucharski and two female models, Sharon Anderson and Marie Rogers, both aged 25, during a June 1994 home invasion in the South Florida city of Miramar.<br /><br />The judge also scheduled a new hearing for July 1.<br /><br />"It's been a long journey and we've waited a long time for this moment to arrive. It's a wonderful day, and we're going to be able to demonstrate Pablo's innocence," Ibar's wife, Tania, told EFE, visibly moved by this week's developments.<br /><br />Though acknowledging that "no one knows what will happen," Tania said she was hopeful that her husband would be acquitted.<br /><br />Ibar's defense team is expected to request during the July 1 hearing that he be released on bail ahead of the retrial, with one of the attorneys saying they were "very optimistic" that petition would be granted.<br /><br />The 45-year-old Ibar was initially tried for the triple homicide along with co-defendant Seth Penalver in 1997, but a mistrial was declared.<br /><br />Penalver was convicted two years later and sentenced to death, but that conviction was subsequently annulled and he was acquitted in a new trial in 2012.<br /><br />Ibar was convicted in 2000, but the Florida Supreme Court overturned that verdict by a 4-3 vote in February of this year based on, among other things, the fact that his DNA was not found on a T-shirt that was recovered from the murder scene and which one of the perpetrators had used to partially cover his face.<br /><br />The Spaniard's attorneys also successfully argued that the quality of the grainy and soundless security camera footage found at Sucharski's home was inadequate and that Ibar had been poorly represented by trial lawyer Kayo Morgan, who passed away in 2014.<br /><br />Morgan's most blatant error was his failure to "present a facial identification expert to explain the physical differences between Ibar and the perpetrator alleged to have been him in the video and to demonstrate that the quality of the images were so poor that they were inadequate to make a reliable identification," the majority of Florida Supreme Court justices wrote.<br /><br />Ibar had been on death row at the Union Correctional Institution near the northern Florida town of Raiford, but he has been moved to a regular cell at a prison north of Miami, his attorneys told EFE on Thursday. <br /><br />Source: Latino Fox News, June 10, 2016<br /><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">- Report an error, an omission:<a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com" target="_blank"> deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;"> - Follow us on <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/Death-Penalty-News-206848499362906/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> </b>and <b><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b></span></div></div>

DNA Facial recognition Florida Innocence Pablo Ibar Spain Spaniard Pablo Ibar taken off Florida death row

Pablo Ibar Pablo Ibar, whose death sentence was overturned in February by the Florida Supreme Court, has been transferred to a regular priso...

Baca selengkapnya »

Death penalty chaos around the country

<div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimYBP1BQaJwUCowTHuxQQorJRyiEcc6q7eX0TUJ5lX96FIQnguLq0khhNt3iMnMeazKt88AopltRg1vzEKFVywVEU6Mo_MSYp2OksGSjgLRUookvEU7xLU-b3cOwTFUuAO5F3ef2KECjY/s1600/death+penalty+eliminated.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="313" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimYBP1BQaJwUCowTHuxQQorJRyiEcc6q7eX0TUJ5lX96FIQnguLq0khhNt3iMnMeazKt88AopltRg1vzEKFVywVEU6Mo_MSYp2OksGSjgLRUookvEU7xLU-b3cOwTFUuAO5F3ef2KECjY/s400/death+penalty+eliminated.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>Nevada just became the ninth death penalty state to go a decade or more without an execution. Add those nine to the 19 states without capital punishment, and you have 28 states that have abandoned executions in either law or practice.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">And in the remaining states? The death penalty is in complete chaos.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Florida’s death penalty law has already been thrown out twice in 2016. The first ruling came from the U.S. Supreme Court in January. The Florida legislature then passed a “fix” to the law, and last month a Miami judge threw it out again. Alabama’s death penalty law is similar to Florida’s, and the Supreme Court sent a death sentence back for review for the third time this week because of those similarities.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Meanwhile, prosecutors in Georgia have come under fire for illegally keeping African Americans off the jury in a death penalty case. The Supreme Court overturned the sentence with a vote of 7-1. The defendant is one of many black men sentenced to die by an all-white jury across the south.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Lethal injection debacles continue as states struggle to find drugs, hide their processes in secrecy, or carry out executions with outright “systemic ineptitude.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Oklahoma is back at the heart of the lethal injection controversy. A grand jury released 106 pages of scathing critiques last month, citing “inexcusable failures” in the state’s execution process. According to the Washington Post, the grand jury:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“…paints these officials as careless and, in some cases, reckless. The missteps described by the grand jury include a pharmacist ordering the wrong drug for executions, multiple state employees failing to notice or tell anyone about the mixup and a high-ranking official in the governor’s office urging others to carry out an execution even with the incorrect drug.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The same secrecy and lack of oversight found in Oklahoma is common in other states, too, and has contributed to execution problems in Missouri, Georgia, and Ohio.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">And now Pfizer, the last remaining, FDA-approved supplier of lethal injection drugs, declared it no longer wants to be in the execution business. Pfizer announced sweeping new restrictions on the distribution of some if its drugs, preventing them from being used in executions.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The last death penalty holdouts show that the only way to have a death penalty is to accept bias, ineptitude, and arbitrariness. It’s only a matter of time before the death penalty is gone for good.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: <a href="http://ejusa.org/death-penalty-chaos-around-the-country/" target="_blank">Equal Justice USA</a>, Sarah Craft, June 7, 2016</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">- Report an error, an omission:<a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com" target="_blank"> deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;"> - Follow us on <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/Death-Penalty-News-206848499362906/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> </b>and <b><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b></span></div></div>

Alabama Florida Georgia lethal injections Missouri Nevada Ohio Oklahoma Pfizer SCOTUS USA Death penalty chaos around the country

Nevada just became the ninth death penalty state to go a decade or more without an execution. Add those nine to the 19 states without capita...

Baca selengkapnya »

Family of Spaniard Pablo Ibar cautious ahead of new trial

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1iSRdE-MpplGYOlDo8fPXBd6trv8utoO9PGUASAfSRTcbrok5ULveptPFP7V2RTuv1vg1jgOaO4b9QJNxRdhniz00oE_cp9LpV_XXWG6DYqcNXQgoqB-2mNEtvn6of76aLFBzGydX1mU/s1600/Pablo+Ibar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Pablo Ibar" border="0" height="312" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1iSRdE-MpplGYOlDo8fPXBd6trv8utoO9PGUASAfSRTcbrok5ULveptPFP7V2RTuv1vg1jgOaO4b9QJNxRdhniz00oE_cp9LpV_XXWG6DYqcNXQgoqB-2mNEtvn6of76aLFBzGydX1mU/s400/Pablo+Ibar.jpg" title="Pablo Ibar" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pablo Ibar</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Kin of Spaniard on death row in U.S. cautious ahead of new trial</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Family and supporters of Pablo Ibar, a Spanish citizen sentenced to death in Florida for a 1994 triple-murder, said here Thursday that while they welcome <a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.fr/2016/02/spaniard-pablo-ibar-on-death-row-in.html" target="_blank">a decision to grant him a new trial</a>, they remain wary.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ibar's father and cousin and the spokesman for the Pablo Ibar Association Against the Death Penalty, Andres Krakenberger, met Thursday morning with the president of the Basque regional parliament, Bakartxo Tejeria, and other lawmakers.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">After the round of meetings, they told reporters they hope to convince the parliament to issue an institutional declaration in favor of Ibar.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Krakenberger said the different parties have been favorable to supporting this cause "of evident injustice."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In February, the Florida Supreme Court overturned the 2000 murder conviction of the 45-year-old Ibar, who has been imprisoned for almost 22 years, 15 of them on death row.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The 4-3 decision means Ibar will get a new trial on charges he took part in the 1994 murders of nightclub owner Casimir "Butch Casey" Sucharski, 48, and models Sharon Anderson and Marie Rogers, both 25.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Supreme Court on Wednesday formally returned the case to a court in Broward County, just north of Miami, where the crime took place.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Krakenberger said Thursday that though the new trial should begin within 90 days, there is a series of variables that could influence the situation, including the fact that the prosecution may ask for a postponement.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Despite the fact that they're optimistic, Krakenberger urged people not to "lower your guard" or to "celebrate," because prosecutors continue to seek the death penalty for Ibar.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">When asked about how the citizen and institutional campaign is going to collect the funds needed to pay for the cost of a new trial, Krakenberger said that they have a little over half the required money in hand and that the lawyers have begun working on the pretrial preparations.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ibar's father Candido said that the family is encouraged and hopeful, adding that his son is doing well, although he's also a little "nervous" about the new phase that's beginning now.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: Fox news, May 2, 2016</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">- Report an error, an omission:<a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com" target="_blank"> deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;"> - Follow us on <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/Death-Penalty-News-206848499362906/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> </b>and <b><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b></span></div></div>

Facial recognition Florida Innocence Pablo Ibar USA Family of Spaniard Pablo Ibar cautious ahead of new trial

Pablo Ibar Kin of Spaniard on death row in U.S. cautious ahead of new trial Family and supporters of Pablo Ibar, a Spanish citizen sentenced...

Baca selengkapnya »